The Gates of Hell…

As one digs deeper into the national character of the Americans, one sees that they have sought the value of everything in this world only in the answer to this single question: how much money will it bring in?

Nearly two hundred years later, de Tocqueville has been vindicated not only as a superb social critic but also as a forecaster.

High anxiety

Knowing nothing about de Tocqueville, the ten-year-old son of a friend put his own spin on recent history: “Mom, I think people value Father Time more than they value Mother Earth.”

His words sting me like freezing rain, squeezing tears from the corners of my eyes. There’s nothing new there for me, except the perspective of youth: I often weep when I think about the hellishly overheated world we’re leaving him and his young friends. We’re destroying this world in large part because we care more about chasing fiat currency than we care about the living planet and its occupants.

Although it seems unlikely they met, de Tocqueville was writing during the time of the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard. As if he, too, could see the future, Kierkegaard was plagued with anxiety. However, Kierkegaard didn’t call anxiety a plague. As he pointed out, anxiety is fundamental to our sense of humanity.

Although I’m tempted to discard Kierkegaard’s every thought based simply on his ludicrous leap of faith, I can’t convince myself to disagree with him about anxiety. His writings about anxiety resonate with me as strongly as anything I’ve read by Lao Tzu, Arthur Schopenhauer, or Aldo Leopold.

It’s small wonder I’ve slept so poorly since August of 1979, when I reached a vague, subconscious understanding of the dire straits in which humanity is immersed. More than three decades after that summer of my nineteenth year, “my distress is enormous, boundless,” and growing by the day.

Act NOW and save!

I envy those who know about ongoing climate change and yet can remain comfortable with that knowledge. If you’re among them, perhaps this essay will drag you with me, into the abyss of despair. If so, I encourage you to abide the prescient words of Edward Abbey: “Action is the antidote to despair.”

If you’re under the age of 35, you’ve never experienced “normal” temperatures despite a weakening sun. In fact, February 1985 was the last time global mean monthly average was below the twentieth-century average.

In fact, an increase in global average temperature of 1 C is potentially catastrophic, as pointed out by the United Nations in 1990. Meanwhile, the OECD concludes we’re headed for an average temperature increase of 3-6 degrees Celsius by 2050 (original report here).

All the news that’s fit to print

Supporting documentation is far more abundant than revealed by these recent headlines:

Desperation is leading to long-shot technical “fixes.” Naturally, these don’t include changing the behavior of people in the industrialized world.

As usual, Americans, still affluent relative to people in other nations, can’t be bothered because they’re too concerned about the industrial economy to worry about persistence of Homo sapiens.

The occasional thoughtful American writes a letter of apology to his grandchildren, preferring the ease of an apology over the difficulty of action. On the other hand, President Obama continues to ignore the issue, even though he certainly knows he’s committing his family and young children to hell on Earth.

If we didn’t already have enough reason to terminate this absurd set of living arrangements, human extinction might do the trick.

It might be too late, of course: More than two years ago Tim Garrett pointed out that only collapse of the industrial economy prevents runaway greenhouse. In those two years, we’ve set records for carbon emissions on this overheated planet. But if we act as if it’s too late, our actions become self-fulfilling prophecy.

The day after tomorrow

In the spirit of Edward Abbey, let’s channel some Kierkegaard-inspired anxiety to act as if the future matters. Let’s act as if we have a future. Let’s act now, while the idea of a future still persists. Before it’s too late. Before there’s no tomorrow for our entire species.
~~

2 Comments

So, what of transition, transition to what? In fact, I’ve quite given up on humanity to react in time, even if there were time – we are told it may well be too late to stop global warming, thanks to methane released from a warming Arctic Ocean. This point was reached in my feelings several years ago when as a board member I tried to redirect the Ukiah Co-op’s vision away from products shipped in from all over the world “because they are what members want” toward a vigorous promotion of local products, to use savings thus rather than for an expansion to make room for more shipped-in groceries – and was mocked by all the other board members. Actually, that probably didn’t matter, because it was already too late. Do I behave any better? Well, I try to at least marginally so, with awareness when I screw up. Will it make any difference? Very likely not. Modern humanity is willing to risk extinction in a not so distant future rather than sacrifice lifestyle now. Try, please try, to convince me differently. Thus, all the economic, political, and environmental blogs are only so much waste of time, whistling Dixie. Two of my great grandparents were alive during my early years, one was born just before the Civil War and was taken on a wagon train to Oregon in his first year, the other was born during the war shortly after which her father was drafted. I now have five precious great grandchildren, the seventh generation from that of my great grandparents’, the Iroquois’ fabled seventh generation. Will even a third generation follow theirs?

Actually, I am comfortable. Perhaps growing up in extremely difficult and needy circumstances helps. Perhaps living under fire as a civilian aid worker in Viet Nam during ’66-’70 and seeing horrendous suffering up close and personal helps. For sure the serenity prayer helps. The one comfort in all this for me is that collapse of this preditory and depraved dominator culture is coming to an end. Even, as seems increasingly certain, humans become extinct in the process, at least the evil will have been overcome. Obedience to authority is the core problem. Sociopaths exploit this vulnerability to savage us. So, if nothing else is done, RESIST AUTHORITY NOW.

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